Part 4

Bob sat back on the comfy blue sofa and sighed. When
he'd decided to surprise Dot by appearing unexpectedly in her living room, he'd
assumed that by ten in the evening she'd be there. Now past midnight, Bob scanned
the immaculately clean room for the hundredth time, then continued to stare
at the fireplace opposite where he was sitting. He ran through all the places
she could be at that time of night, and dialled the Principal Office. After
only two rings, Phong's face appeared in the vid-window.

"Hi Phong. Can I speak to Dot please?"

"She's not here, my son. I have not seen her
all day."

"Okay, she must be at the diner then. 'Night."

Bob closed the connection and got up to leave. He
was about to make a portal when he thought that maybe Dot was already on her
way home, so he left a note on the coffee table in case he missed her and left
the apartment on foot.

It was only a short walk to the diner, and Dot had
told him many times she didn't need to be walked home when he'd offered because
her apartment building was so close by. It was also her way of justifying working
late on a regular basis, with no one around to make sure she took some breaks.

The way was well-lit until Bob got to the diner
itself, as all the outside lights had been shut down for the night. He smiled
to himself as he spotted the few dim lights inside that illuminated a small
part of the diner towards the back. Bob slammed the doors open like a saloon-
Mouse style.

"Hey babe, you've really got to stop working
so-" He stopped mid-stride as he took in the scene in front of him. A pile
of papers had been upset and were now strewn across the floor along with a spilt
energy shake.

"Dot?" Bob called out anxiously, a feeling
of dread beginning to knot in his stomach. The feeling was heightened when he
noticed her organiser, still on-line, lying on the table with several 'missed
calls' flashing on screen.

'She would never leave that...' Bob realised immediately.
Trying to think of perfectly innocent reasons why the diner could be left like
this, he ran into the back, checking the small office she sometimes used to
work.

Nothing.

Not even a clue as to what had happened either.
'Come on, got to stay calm. Maybe she was called away by Matrix or...' Bob told
himself, although he knew that wasn't likely. He walked slowly to the front
of the diner again. 'There'll be some perfectly reasonable explanation and Dot
will laugh at me because I got so-'

He felt his heart almost stop in fear as he spotted
something on the bar that really shouldn't have been there. A tiny pool of blue
next to some sort of card that had been left there deliberately for someone
to find. Bob picked it up carefully and turned it over in his hand, only to
see a single word scrawled crudely:

'Pay back'

Bob stared at it in disbelief, then touched the
blue liquid and his fear was confirmed when he realised what it was.

Blood.

Dot struggled half-heartedly in his grasp again,
but she knew it was useless. Her captor had taunted and teased her until she'd
blocked his voice out and ignored him, at which point he'd gotten bored, finally
leaving her alone. She refused to cry, although despair was beginning to make
it difficult to not to cry, as it was to believe she'd escape.

At the diner, Damien had told her she was 'going
for a little walk' and promptly shoved her forwards against a table, sending
papers and what was left of her shake to the floor. Then he'd pulled her arms
painfully tight behind her back and tied her wrists. It wasn't rope or cord
though. Some sort of thin metal wire that dug deeply into her skin, leaving
trickles of blood running down onto her hands. Dot thought she saw him take
something out of his pocket, but before she knew what was happening she felt
a searing pain in her right upper arm. Damien had forced her sideways so her
injured arm hit the bar, making her cry out angrily. A few drops of her blood
were now dotted on the bar-top, and she watched as Damien pulled a small card
out of his pocket and threw it down on the counter.

After that he had pushed her out of the diner and
along deserted alleyways until they'd come to a building Dot recognised as somewhere
near Level 31. All the way he'd made comments about her looks or her job, provoking
her to respond snappily, which only seemed to fuel it all the more. Damien had
opened the door and pushed her in roughly after him, but not before whispering
harshly in her ear:

Dot turned to glare at him in return as he pushed
her into the room. It was an open-plan one-room warehouse building, with a large
coffee table placed between two dark red sofas in the centre of the room. A
desk was at the far end of the room, almost hidden due to the bad lighting.

Keeping a firm grip on her, Damien locked the door
behind him, then stared at her.

"You were more trouble than I expected."

"Good."

Damien laughed, then shoved her violently to the
floor. Landing awkwardly because of her tied hands, Dot let out a gasp of pain.
Suddenly she felt Damien circle an arm round her thighs and she screamed. Her
wide, frightened eyes met his as he glanced at her in amusement.

"No one can hear you. It's not worth the effort."

Damien held tighter to her legs and Dot felt the
uncomfortable tightness of the wire binding her ankles together. When he was
finished he leaned his face close to hers.

"I'm not going to hurt you, baby." He
stroked a fingertip across her cheek. "Not yet anyways." Damien laughed
and squeezed her waist cruelly, then got up and sat on one of the couches.

Dot pulled herself into a sitting position.

"Why am I here? What do you want?"

"I'm just following orders. Boss wanted you
so I got you. End of story." Damien lay back, hands behind his head and
closed his eyes. "How's Bob by the way? I heard he was web-bound not so
long ago. Poor guy." He laughed again, emphasising his sarcasm.

"If my brother or Bob finds you-"

"What? I'll wish I'd never been born?"

"You haven't met Matrix. Trust me he'd-"

"Look baby, I don't care, okay? Now just be
quiet like a nice little girl and-"

"Damn it, Damien, I'm not twelve! Stop treating
me like-" Dot gasped as Damien was suddenly out of his seat and forcing
her shoulders down again.

"Maybe I'll bring forward the fun part. You
sure as hell deserve it, that temper of yours." He squeezed her thigh and
ran a hand up her side, round the curves of her leather-clad body. Dot screamed
again and tried to wrestle him away, but she could barely move with her arms
and legs bound.

"No! Stop it!"

Dot felt his hands stop just below her chest and
he brought his face close to hers again.

"Be quiet, then I won't have to... shut you
up, shall we say." He sat back in his place again and Dot lay there, fighting
back tears.

"This is all my fault. I should've sensed something
was happening. I should have gone to the diner earlier. I should've-" Bob
was pacing the War Room, frantically pulling a hand through his long hair and
speaking more to himself than any of the sprites that were also present.

"Well...if it's anything else..." Her
eyes met Bob's and she left the sentence abruptly, turning to Phong instead.
"Don't suppose anythin' came back on that lil' message, did it Phong?"

"Not as yet, Mouse. But Specs is still working
on it."

"I should have been with her. Why didn't I
think waiting for two whole micros was odd? User, I'm so basic!" Bob was
saying, starting to pace again,

"Bob, sugah, she was in the diner. Her diner.
There couldn't have been a safer place, but it still happened. Now we hav' ta
find her."

"Dot could be anywhere! What if they... what
if they..." Bob faltered, wishing he hadn't thought along those lines and
afraid finishing what he was going to say would make it real. He took a deep
breath and his eyes darkened. "If they touch her, hurt her in any way I'll-"

"Bob! What the hell is going on?" A looming
great frame demanded as he entered the room.

"It's Dot. She's- she's been taken from the
diner."

"She's what? Why- how did this happen? When
did this happen?"

"The diner- there were signs of a scuffle when
I got there last night and I found... there was blood on the counter."

"What does my sister have to do with anything?
Why'd they take her?"

"There was something left at the diner, Matrix.
A piece of card. It said 'Pay back' on it," Mouse interjected, saving Bob
from any further questions. "Maybe this has ta do with Daemon's destruction.
Some stray followers we don't know about?"

"But why Dot?" Bob asked her helplessly.

"Mainframe was named as one of the main instigators
in the battle against Daemon. Word probably got round nearly the whole 'Net
that we were a major part in that virus's defeat- and I hate to think maybe
Daemon actually gained some voluntary followers but Dot's in charge of the system."
Mouse explained, looking weary now after hours of constant work.

"So they took her as revenge... for stopping
Daemon?" Matrix echoed in disbelief.

"But that means they won't want a deal. If
it's revenge they'll... User Mouse, I hope you're wrong!" Bob exclaimed,
the uncomfortable knot of panic within him becoming harder to repress.

"So do I." Mouse replied solemnly.

Dot awoke slowly, finding it hard to break through
to reality. It was almost like being under the spell of sleeping pills or drugs...
had he drugged her? If he had she couldn't remember it, although she couldn't
remember falling asleep either.

"Ow," She murmured aloud when she moved
her head. After being tied up for so long her limbs ached and her head throbbed.
There was light coming from a window nearby that hurt her eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" Dot asked
irritably to the empty space around her. She struggled against the wire, only
to feel the sharp, stinging pain again as the skin was broken. The sudden feeling
of helplessness was completely foreign to her- and she hated it. Even in the
war against Megabyte she hadn't felt like this. But then she'd been surrounded
by people who could help her, trusted her, and she had been in control. Now
that control had been taken away from her and she felt... helpless.

The warehouse was the same, so at least he hadn't
moved her. 'If we don't move from this building, they could find us. I'm sure
they will...' she took a slight comfort in that hope. CPU's would search the
entire system at daylight as a first in a missing sprite case. 'When will they
notice I'm not where I should be? I usually check in at the Principal Office
before mid-cycle... mid-cycle? That's so far away! Half the cycle will be gone,
they-'

"Hey it's about time you woke up!" Damien
told her impatiently, suddenly standing in front her.

"It's not like I'm going to make any of my
appointments today, is it?" Dot retorted.

Damien laughed at her anger. "You just can't
control that fiery temperament of yours, can you?"

"When are you going to let me go?"

"Let you go?" Damien laughed again. "What
in the 'Net makes you think you're getting out of this in one piece?" He
took a threatening step towards her for effect.

"Why me, exactly, Damien?" Dot asked,
keeping her voice level. "Because I hate to break this to you, but Daemon's
been deleted, Megabyte is web-bound as you put it, and Hexidecimal is a reformed
virus. So if you're thinking of a deal with the enemies of Mainframe, we're
fresh out of evil at the moment." Dot smiled sweetly at him, feeling strangely
empowered by her words.

"Jeez, you think you're so clever, do you?
Well I'm going to be able to prove that evil is a lot closer than you think."

"Oh, don't tell me. Your boss is the new supervirus
that's going to take over every system, city and person there is. Right?"
Dot replied sarcastically.

"If you want to look at it that way..."
Damien replied, barely sparing a glance in her direction as he started sifting
through the papers and magazines on the coffee table. Dot rolled her eyes.

"How original." She commented aloud. Damien
was still shuffling through the contents of each magazine, obviously searching
for something.

She didn't receive an answer so she assumed that
he hadn't heard her or ignored her question. 'A guardian? Surely that isn't
who Damien is working for?' Dot's thoughts began to produce an onslaught of
unanswerable questions that she would prefer not to think about. Dot found herself
thinking of Bob, and what his reaction to this would be. She felt so sorry for
him- if this was the beginning of some sort of Guardian rebellion, he wouldn't
take it well, especially after the entire Daemon situation.

'Why can't they all be loyal to their protocol like
they're supposed to be? Like Bob is?'

"What d'ya think it means, love?" Ray
asked, hovering behind her as Mouse re-examined what she was working on to,
be sure of her previous conclusion.

"Yeah. It's about time you did too." Ray
replied, suddenly scooping her up to carry her to the door- his attempt at lightening
her mood. It didn't work.

"Ya had better put me down, right now or-"
Mouse warned him, stress and worry for her best friend making her irritable.

"'Kay, okay. Relax Mouse. At least for a while?
You need rest, love." He backed down quickly, having learned the warning
signs of Mouse's temper already, even in the short time they had known each
other. Instead he put his arms round in a supportive hug, and felt her head
rest on his shoulder in exhaustion. After a few millis she pulled away, the
same tense expression on her lavender face.

"But what about Bob? How's he gonna take the
news that a Guardian's responsible for his girlfriend's disappearance?"

"You're going to wear a hole in the floor,
Sparky." AndrAIa teased him gently, getting up from her place on Bob's
couch to lay her peach-coloured hands on Matrix's wide shoulders.

"It just follows us," Matrix told her
cryptically.

"What does?" The pretty game sprite asked
as she clasped her hands behind his neck, wondering if using her nails would
be a good idea after her boyfriend's sleepless night.

"Trouble. Follows us everywhere we go. And
now Dot's missing and I can't do anything about it."

"No! If you'd stayed longer both of you might
be gone." Matrix told her firmly, his pale green face flickered with a
mix of anger and relief.

"Have the search parties been sent out?"
AndrAIa asked softly.

"Yeah, but the distorted energy reading Mouse
found could be anything and from anywhere. And it's been scrambled," Matrix
replied with an infamous scowl. "She could be anywhere in this system or
anywhere in the 'Net if the reading's a fake- according to Mouse."

"Sssh Sparky. We'll find her. Don't give up
yet, okay?"

Bob had walked in, around, and out of his girlfriend's
diner more times than he could count in the last micro. He was feeling guilty,
worried, restless and any other emotion that could be connected to frantic searching
for clues and trying to find a shred of hope at the scene.

It wasn't helping him. in fact it was probably making
things worse, seeing the blood on the counter again- however small the drop
was- almost made him sick.

It wasn't fair. Why was it always Mainframe? Always
them- the group of friends now known 'Net-wide and hailed as heroes. Why Dot?

A vid-window popped into existence next to him as
he was walking, displaying Mouse, and Ray- he noticed- behind her.

"Bob sugah?"

"Yeah Mouse. What's happening?" He greeted
in a dead-pan tone.

"Ah think we got somthin'-" Mouse started
to explain.

"You've found her?" Bob's azure face lit
up as he dared hope...

"We may have a possible location, sugah,"
She told him carefully, making sure she didn't give him any false implications.
"Level 31, near Al's old place. We tracked it by-"

"Bob, I think ya might wanna hear this mate."
Ray informed him anxiously. Bob glanced back at the window again in time to
see Mouse's grateful smile at her companion.

"Sugah, we found traces of a Guardian-based
key tool on that little message ya found." She explained, dreading his
reaction to the news. "And Ah managed to hack inta Turbo's new system ta
find a match on that scrambling device. It belongs to a key tool as well, which
kinda confirms it."

"This is happening because of a Guardian?"
Bob cried in disbelief.

"Looks like it, sugah."

"I've got to help her, Mouse. I need those
co-ordinates!"

"We'll be there in a nano." Mouse assured
him after reciting the location. "Wait at-" As she looked up she realised
Bob had ignored her plea to wait, seeing the increasingly small figure of Mainframe's
Guardian disappearing into the midst of the city.

"You're starting to annoy me, girl." Damien
warned her, his black eyes flashing angrily as he held her violet ones in a
challenge.

"Just be quiet!" He told her for the fifth
time. She knew she was pushing her luck, and that it would run out pretty soon.
Damien moved across to the desk at the back of the open-plan room, an obvious
effort to ignore her.

Dot obeyed his request for a while, tired of the
constant confrontations and the cramps in her arms and legs. The half-healed
cuts were painful as the wire relentlessly dug into her skin again.

Suddenly Damien laughed triumphantly from the other
side of the large room and murmured something that sounded like a command.